The Last Domino

by Adam Meyer

While dealing with the pressures of his family, his brother's suicide, and constant ridicule at school, Trevor Ellroy's world changes when he meets the fearless and strong-willed Daniel who, despite appearing like an understanding friend, turns out to be a dangerous person with a frightening agenda.

Genres: Young Adult, Teen

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

Adam Meyer is a novelist, filmmaker, and television writer. His novel The Last Domino was an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, and his new novel, When She's Gone, is due out in 2012. His short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and magazines including 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Prisoners of the Night, and multiple volumes of The Year's Best Horror Stories. He is also writer/director of the feature film Two Fireflies and has written documentaries and TV series for Fox, CBS, Discovery, and National Geographic Television.

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong, scary book. Adam kills his parents and becomes a shooter at his school. What makes the story work so well is that it has police reports and diary entries interspersed throughout the story itself. The book does not glorify school violence at all. It's a great story to read and then discuss with teens. And teens like reading the book.

[Chase Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Domino is a great book that reveals the thoughts and actions of a young troubled teen who goes through strife at home and at school. The writing style is detailed yet easy to comprehend, and the growing conflict in the story leaves the reader nail-biting as they move onto the next chapter. The character development throughout the story is well presented as we read through Travis' dark thoughts and later on violent actions. The book gives off a more modern feel as you read it, making it easier to follow. This is a solid book to sit down and almost be sucked into, as after every chapter leaves you wanting to read another. This book address's current issues in our society involving the recent growth in school shootings, and does a good job of making people aware of it. I could connect to this book on some levels, but as the book progresses you can tell Travis' begins to lose his humanity. The theme in The Last Domino is guilt, as Travis' feels guilty for his brother's suicide throughout the whole story. The lesson from this book I received was watch who you associate yourself with, be your own person. My favorite part of the story was when PJ's car got hit, because justice is sweet, and my least favorite part was the ending because it's pretty sad. I think this is a 5 star book, and a good read for those looking to indulge themselves in a suspenseful book.

[Gwynne Bee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I initially read this book as a wee middle schooler when I found it shelved among the YA novels in the public library. To young me this book was a breath of fresh air, how it satisfied the need for an age-appropriate counterpart to the King, Vonnegut, and Thompson I'd been consuming in an effort to "be grown".

As an adult this book has not held up. When you're young and feel immune to consequences or to the awful things that happen in the world, it's just a passing fling and onto the next book. Upon rereading it I found myself identifying with no single character, and having trouble "rooting for" anyone. It brought me instead to wonder what sort of young people are picking this book up and using it to rationalize their own disturbed or depressed thoughts. How easily the main character is groomed into a killer is mirrored all too cleanly in current events, where children are so easily manipulated into self-harm and dangerous situations all for the sake of feeling accepted.

It's a rough ride, and definitely a book I won't be revisiting.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was such a trip, especially the final chapter, finding out that he didn't remember it at all until he comes to and start writing the book himself (🫨), probably with the help of that random ass police officer.

I was not expecting to fully get into the mindset of Travis himself , I truly got the feeling and understanding of where he stood with every person that we got to know throughout.

[Melinda Jones]

Creepy, but it shows how one person can influence the life of anothet.

[Mason King]

Book Review

The book, The Last Domino is a very good, interesting book. It is by Adam Meyer. This book gives me many different types of emotions, it can be scary, funny, sad but it is always interesting. But most of all it is a freaky story.

The main character Travis, is the kid of a brother who had killed him self over the summer. When Travis comes back to school he is harassed by everyone because they all say it was his fault he killed him self. There is only one person who ever speaks to Travis and that's the star player of the football team with a good heart, his name is Adam.

But to that one nice person, every other person is mean. Especially Pj Riley, a kid who had always been a bully anyways. This school year was different, he had a new friend of the bully crew that tried to steal Travis's seat in every class. Travis always imagined things he would do to him. But never did any of them. He always gets ideas and words in his brain from a weird voice that he recognizes. I think it's his brother, he does too and can't stand it so he comes so close to killing himself to put away the pain.

This book lets you know that you should never kill your self, and I'm sure life will get better for Travis. Things always could be worse also, at least one person is friendly to Travis.

[Sam Mosholder · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this book, there were a lot of really questionable things. It was one of those books that left a sour taste in your mouth and a knotted feeling in your tummy. It was not the worst book I've ever read, but it certainly was not the best. Anyways, what I thought about this book was that it was really demented. The author made it hard to read on because the whole time the main character is doing bad things and making mistakes. You can see them coming and the main character keeps running on down the wrong path. I know that this was the whole point of the book, because it's supposed to be like that. It just didn't have the same effect on me. Some people wouldn't be able to put a book down like this, but I just couldn't pick it up. It was still enjoyable at some points. It almost seemed as though the main character was getting better at some points, but it proved to be a false assumption every time. I would've given this book a higher rating if I enjoyed reading these kinds of novels, but I don't so there's my opinion.

[Andres · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book. For my friends thats a suprise because I hate to read. There was a point at the book where I just couldn't stop reading. I like the fact that Tavis (the main character) can't trust anyone. He has to rely on his feelings to go through the problems he faces. On the way though he has a good friend named Daniel to help give him advice but there's something about Daniel that Travis finds suspiciouse. This book is very fast-paced book and there's a lot of jaw dropers. If your like me and you don't like read but you need a book for a report, you should read The Last Domino.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It's about a junior in high school, Travis, that is going through some hard times with himself and others five years after his brother, Richie, killed himself. That's when the new kid shows up, Daniel, and he befriends him. With Daniel's manipulations and lies, the story carries you through an emotional rollercoaster where you'll feel bad for Travis but at times also appalled at him. The end is honestly quite surprising and not expected at all. Over all, I really enjoyed this book and it had me hooked since the first line of the story.

[James Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was great. The reader can understand this child's life my the voices in his head and by what goes on in his life. Most young adult readers I feel, would understand how it feels having parents like the main character, and could get some insight into how he feels. I feel the school shooting is portrayed very well, and liked the case reports throughout the book from a special group of people.

[Dre-kwon Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

the last domino is a piece of literature arts, for, our MC is in for a path of total regret for putting his trust into Daniel, the cause of trav-oh problems. If you need a book about how to change a person life, than dont read this book, but if you need a book on how to see a person who wants to push you towards regret, than read on because you may need this in your life, only to know who to really trust.

[jackie ewing · Rating 2 out of 5]

Freaky, troubling, just wow. I feel like the book never had a “hook point” where I became deeply invested in it like most books. I kinda had to force myself to finish it, and the build up to the ending wasn’t all that worth it? The ending wasn’t as powerful as I was expecting, but it definitely was more troubling than I anticipated. Interesting book.

[Taiji · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met the guy and he gave me a free copy. It was pretty good. The further in the book you get the easier it is to figure out the ending. There was also a few dialogue pieces that felt really unnatural.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A scarily violent and disturbing school shooting book. The ending being the beginning is a great stylistic choice, as are the interstitial stories between chapters. The ending is a bit of a surprise with our "good" boy being worse than you think and our bad boy ALSO being worse than you think.

[Daniel R · Rating 2 out of 5]

haunting. I will never view teenagers the same way.... Couldn't put it down at the end.
Presentation: 6/10
Plot: 7/10
Disturbance(high is very disturbing, and high lowers the score): 10/10

[Sofa King · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much did not like this book. The foreshadowing was way to obvious it spoiled the entire book! The message was good but, it was so poorly executed. Would not recommend this unless you are looking for a quick read and don't really care if it has any meaning, because it's got action.

[Marta Timbrook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good guy book for any teen who is struggling to find a good read. My hubby read this in two days. If school shootings/teen violence disturb you, do not read this.

[Beckett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upsetting. Well written. It's all about choices...
And about how influential parents can be, sometimes in the worst ways.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Daniel was so creepy, the book definitely was a page turner for me.

[Haley Shaffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing. Boys who like Give a Boy a Gun, Hate List, Just Another Hero, etc. will like this. A more challenging read, told in flashbacks and a lot of foreshadowing.

[Jennifer Rosales · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read.